Resilient side bearing



April 3, 1951 R. D. BRYAN 2,547,852

RESILENT SIDE BEARING Filed Feb. 25, 1948 8 i 3 i a6 /J/mzfV//l//n//n 28 f 2 I l 20 o 26 2220 26 ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 3, 1951 i UNITED STATES PATENT 4OFFICE 2,547,852 RESILIENT SIDE BEARING Ralph D. Bryan, La Grange, Ill.

Application February 25, 1948, Serial No. 10,653

2 Claims. 1

This invention relates to side bearings commonly utilized on the bolster of a railway car truck to cushion lateral tilting of a car body supported by the bolster.

A general object of the invention is to devise a side bearing which may be readily adjusted to maintain constant contact with the car body under any desired precompression.

A further object of the invention is to provide a peep hole in the device to accommodate vis-ual observation of adjustable means therein for limiting the compression stroke thereof.

A. Another object of the invention is to devise a` side bearing having relatively few parts and of economical construction capable of withstanding the severe stresses of railway service.

Still another object of the invention is to provide in a side bearing, such as above described, spring means in the form of ilowable resilient material formed and arranged to reduce abrasion thereof to a minimum.

A further object of the invention is to design the resilient material to afford maximum capacity in the available space while accommodating expansion of the material under load.

Another object of the invention is to form the resilient material with an air pocket to afford an air spring acting in parallel with the material to resist compression of the device.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following specification and the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a preferred embodiment of the invention;

Figure 2 is a side elevational view partly in section on the line 2--2 of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is an end elevational view partly in section on the line 3--3 of Figure 1.

Describing the invention in detail, the novel side bearing comprises a bottom follower, generally designated 2, and including a base plate 4 having a generally rectangular housing 6 supported thereon and welded thereto as at 8. The base plate 4 is provided with perforated lugs or ears 3 and 5 adapted to aiford a convenient connection as, for example, by rivets to the supporting bolster (not shown) The housing 6 is preferably formed of a single strip of steel bent into the desired shape, the free ends of said strip being welded as at I (Figure 1) to maintain the rectangular configuration.

The housing 6, as best seen in Figure 1, thus comprises spaced substantially parallel side walls 2 I2 and I4 and spaced substantially parallel end Walls VI and I8, the side walls having openings 28 formed therein at the ends thereof for a purpose hereinafter described.

A resilient block 22 is positioned within the housing 6 and, as best seen in Figure 1, this block is preferably octagonal in shape with two parallel lateral surfaces engaging the side walls I2 and I 4 and two parallel end surfaces engaging the end walls I' and I8. The other sides of the block 22 extend across the respective corners of the housing 6, as best seen in Figure 1, to define expansion spaces within the housing accommodating flow of the resilient material forming the block 22 as the latter is placed under load on the compression stroke of the bearing. It may be noted at this point that as the resilient material flows into the corners of the housing E, the openings 28 therein accommodate escape of air thereby permitting unimpeded flow of the resilient material into the corners of the housing. Thus the side bearing aiTords uniform resistance to compression from end to end thereof.

A compression block 24 is seated on the top of the resilient block 22 in complementary iiat engagement therewith. The block 24 is preferably formed of a material, such as wood, to reduce abrasion of the resilient block 22 to a minimum and in this connection it may be noted that the margins of the block 22 are formed with radii as indicated at 26 to reduce abrasion.

The resilient block 22 is preferably formed with a central opening 28 which not only affords an expansion space for the resilient material on compression of the block 22 but also affords a convenient receptacle for an air spring conned between the base plate 4 and the compression block 24 whereby, on the compression stroke oi.' the bearing, the air spring in the pocket 28 and the spring block 22 act in parallel to cushion the compression stroke.

Seated on the compression block 24 are a plurality of shims 3U engageable with the upper edge of the housing 6 as at 32 to limit the compression stroke of the device. 'The novel side bearing is particularly designed for use in a constant contact arrangement wherein a pair of such bearings are arranged at the respective ends of the bolster (not shown) and are constantly in contact with the car body (not shown) supported by the bolster. Thus the bearing is designed to be precompressed slightly more than' half of its total travel with the clearance between the shims 30 and the housing 6 approximately ve-sixteenths of an inch under precompression. This preadjustment for different conditions is made possible by the shims 30.

Supported on the shims 30 in overlapping relationship with the housing 6 is a top follower generally designated Sri, in the form of a housing formed with a top wall 36, spaced end walls 38 and spaced side walls 40. The follower 34 is preferably formed of a single steel plate having the sides and ends thereof bent angularly to the plate portion forming the top wall 35 and welded thereto at the corners of the structure as at 42 thereby forming a housing which ts over the housing 6 in telescopic relationship therewith to afford a compact structure in which the top and bottom followers 34 and 2 respectively, are interlocked against substantial relative lateral and longitudinal movement.

The end walls 38 of the housing follower 34 are provided with peep holes 413 accommodating visual observation of the clearance between the shia-ns and the top edge of the bottom housing S. jhus during preadjustznent of the side bearing, as above described, this clearance may be adjusted under the desired precompression by the use o more or less shims 30, as desired,

It will se understood that I do Ynot wish to be limited by the exact embodiment of the device shown which is merely by way of illustration and not limitation as various and other forms of the device will, of course, 'ne apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the claims.

I claim:

1. In a side bearing, a substantially reotangu- 2 4 of the block along each side wall and arranged to define a cavity therebetween, the exterior surfaces of said side portions 'engaging at their apices respective side walls at points intermediate the ends thereof, said side portions merging at their ends to form end portions wider at their juncture with the side portions than each of said side portions, said end portions tapering toward and engaging respective end walls at points intermediate the ends thereof, and means for compressing said block, comprising a member complementary in shape to that of said housing and extending into said housing and bearing against a surface of said block remote from said web, said cavity containing air and being closed by said web and member, said side portions being spaced from the corners of said housing to accommodate bulging of said block toward said corners as said block and air in the cavity are compressed. 2'. 'A side bearing comprising an inner housing, a massvof iiowable resilient material therein, a readily-removable compression block extending int-o the housing and engaging said mass, an outer housing telescoped over the inner housing, and a plurality of readily removable adjusting members disposed between the block and the outer hous ing and aligned with the inner extremity of the inner housing,

RALPH. D. BRYAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the nl@ of this'patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 132,765- King- Nov. 5, 1872 377,125 Trent Jan. 31, 1888 .13013272 Cottrell Nov. l0, 19%2 

